condensed master

Will Bonner
had a bemused look on his face. It was that walk of Gerald's and he had
recognized it's implication.
"What are you doing here?"
"Our car broke down on the road," Will replied, showing him the palms of his
hands that were dirty from clambering over the fence, "we thought the fence was
around someone's house and climbed over to try and get help." The soldier started
to relax, he was only about Will's age.
"Do you live around here?"
Gerald broke into the conversation. "Yes, in an apartment downtown."
The soldier nodded. "I'll have to get you checked out, you're on military
grounds, but the area is restricted so I can't take you to the main building." He
pointed to a small hut under the trees in the opposite direction to where they had
entered. "I'll put you in there until I can get someone to see you."
The door slammed behind them and the padlock snapped shut. Will could hear
the soldier's footsteps leaving the scene and knew that some time would elapse
before anyone returned, due to the distance from there to the main building. He
was amazed that this young soldier had not asked more questions, and at least
performed some preliminary search. Seeing Gerald, he had probably concluded
that their explanation was genuine. Gerald slumped down into the corner, but Will
shocked him back to reality. "Get up, we've got to get out of here, quick smart!"
The hut was very small, only about 6 ft x 6 ft at the most and it was standing
on bare ground. Will guessed it would be a place for a guard to get out of any bad
weather during his rounds. It reminded him of the garden shed back home and he
set about pushing and shoving to look for any movement and he found plenty.
"Quick Gerald, help me dig out the soil, enough to get a grip under this wall,"
Will shouted, as he frantically attacked the soil with his hands. He had no time to
consider Gerald's state of mind, he just kept pushing him to work harder.
The two men finally gripped the bottom rail of the wall. "Lift Gerald, lift as
hard as you can!" and Will felt the side of the hut move, some six inches higher
"more, more!" Will shouted. He could feel his head and arms bursting with the
strain as they lifted it to a height of two feet. "I'll hold it, you go outside and keep
it up for me to get out."
Will took the strain as Gerald disappeared under the gap. Feeling Gerald's
pull, Will quickly dropped down and rolled outside just as Gerald let go and the
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